Traditional ties between "arts" education (that is, discipline-based arts subjects and activities in schools) and an emergent notion of "creativity" in educational discourses and policy documents are loosening, with implications for both. While creativity seems to be on the ascent, the arts may not be as fortunate; creative skills and capacities are emerging as a central focus of twenty-first century learning, while the arts continue to fight for room in an overcrowded curriculum. In this article, we examine some policy-level shifts in focus towards creativity and its conflation with innovation, and its trickle-down effects in secondary and tertiary learning environments. Central to this analysis is the diffuse and often contentious constructions of discourses of creativity, and its inability to be clearly and consistently defined or measured in the education sector. The need to quantify creativity and its presence in schools is on the rise, and this article tracks its implications for teacher education, policy development and curriculum and pedagogical evolution in the twenty-first century.